xxchange

caspianta wrote:am i taking this the wrong way, or is this the most offensive thing ever? likening the man who is remembered for ending slavery (emancipating) to a magician who's...i dunno...getting PETA upset by forcing an abused giraffe be a part of a trick. i'm kind of ashamed of woot for producing this shirt...for me it goes a little too far.

eHalcyon

EdwardBlake wrote:Took me a while to get this shirt. Quite clever use of symbolism. For those who don't get it...

Stay with me.

Abe is freeing the giraffe from the hat.

Abe = Abe

Griffine = Africa = Africans = Slaves

Fancy top hat = Wealthy people = plantations owners = South

Got it, people? Good.

What of the rabbit ears? Just a tie-in to the idea of a magic act, or is there symbolism there as well?

Here's some further heavy symbolism for you though: the design is depicting emancipation as an ILLUSION. In essence, the commentary is that slavery was never abolished. We can then interpret this in two different ways - first, that racism is still rampant among us, and second, that we are all still slaves! To consumerism, to greed, to ignorance... whatever you want to make of it.

Hooray for coming up with complicated meaning to everything. I hope MJ comes in and says "I just wanted to draw Abe with a giraffe."

xxchange

Clearly we have a northerner designer here. See, the point of the shirt is that Abe is MAGIC. He's taking the giraffe out of the hat! I mean, you'd have to be magic to get that animal in in the first place. And you know no one but the northerners are going to think highly of Abe. The southerners are still fighting the Civil War, and the rest of the world is using Abe to make fun of the US for not banning slavery until the 1800s.

EdwardBlake

eHalcyon wrote:What of the rabbit ears? Just a tie-in to the idea of a magic act, or is there symbolism there as well?

Here's some further heavy symbolism for you though: the design is depicting emancipation as an ILLUSION. In essence, the commentary is that slavery was never abolished. We can then interpret this in two different ways - first, that racism is still rampant among us, and second, that we are all still slaves! To consumerism, to greed, to ignorance... whatever you want to make of it.

Hooray for coming up with complicated meaning to everything. I hope MJ comes in and says "I just wanted to draw Abe with a giraffe."

The rabbit ears shows that the griffine are being forced to be something that they aren't.

Well, you could could consider it to be Abe's greatest act (as in world's greatest magic show), rather than taking the illusion route.

But ah. Symbolism are fun to play with. So many meanings. I'm reminded of a quote from Albert Camus...

Nothing is harder to understand than a symbolic work. A symbol always transcends the one who makes use of it and makes him say in reality more than he is aware of expressing.

EdwardBlake

MaryESP wrote:Funny, I was thinking that, because the Giraffe is a fake rabbit, it was a statement about how Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation DIDN'T actually free (m)any slaves....

Which has been up for debate for ages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Proclamation#Immediate_impact

That does seem to fit with the Magician concept of Misdirection (Abe gets people focused on slavery to rile them up, but really cares about maintaining the Union)

I could be wrong, but this appears to be a commentary on Remembered History vs. Actual History.

Yeah, we still have literal slaves amidst us in America.

Psst. Here's what emancipate means.

e⋅man⋅ci⋅pate
/ɪˈmænsəˌpeɪt/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [i-man-suh-peyt] Show IPA
Use emancipator in a Sentence
–verb (used with object), -pat⋅ed, -pat⋅ing.
1. to free from restraint, influence, or the like.
2. to free (a slave) from bondage.

serfer0

Whoa, Nellies!
Sometimes a Woot shirt is just a Woot shirt.
It is a nod to the old time circus banners with lofty names. Say it to yourself in a scary, magical voice: The Greeeeat Emaaaaancipaaatorrr!
See? No racism. Gee whiz, y'all.
And yeah, his hat was tall. Why waste all that space on a tiny rabbit? Go big or go home!
This proud Illinoisan will take one please!

AdderXYU

serfer0 wrote:Whoa, Nellies!
Sometimes a Woot shirt is just a Woot shirt.
It is a nod to the old time circus banners with lofty names. Say it to yourself in a scary, magical voice: The Greeeeat Emaaaaancipaaatorrr!
See? No racism. Gee whiz, y'all.
And yeah, his hat was tall. Why waste all that space on a tiny rabbit? Go big or go home!
This proud Illinoisan will take one please!

Please listen to this person. Because they are probably right and you are all being average wooters.

MaryESP

AdderXYU wrote:Please listen to this person. Because they are probably right and you are all being average wooters.

My problem is that I see symbolism in everything. It has kept me from wearing interesting shirts in the past, and I fear this one falls into that category, though it could spark interesting discussions.

eHalcyon

serfer0 wrote:Oh, certainly! And don't forget the CLEAR references to Lincoln's secretary named KENNEDY and Kennedy's secretary named LINCOLN! It's right there in the cape!

Abe is holding the wand with his left hand and holding the giraffe's neck with his right. Assuming that Abe is in fact choking the giraffe rather than just pulling it out of the hat, it is interesting to note that this act of violence is being committed with the right hand as opposed to the left hand (the latin word for left is "sinestra", from which we also derive such words as "sinister"). Even as the "good" hand acts horridly, the left hand holds the wand. If we hearken back to our childhood days, we remember that magic is AWESOME. Clearly this reversal of roles suggests that we are all capable of good and evil, and that we should not assume the character of anyone based on our own prejudices and stereotypes.

JadenKale

MaryESP wrote:My problem is that I see symbolism in everything. It has kept me from wearing interesting shirts in the past, and I fear this one falls into that category, though it could spark interesting discussions.

Ahuhu, I've already bought my shirt for this week anyway.

Your seeing symbolism in everything is purely because you wish to see symbolism in everything. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, my dear Freud.

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